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WINTER NAVIGATION on the lakes is well cared for by boats built by the Detroit Company. Sainte Marie is the name of the car ferry steamer that traverses the Straits of Mackinaw summer and winter. She is 269^ ft, long, moulded; 302 ft. on deck, 51^ ft. beam and 24 ft. deep; capacity 18 loaded freight cars, speed 15 miles an hour. The engines are vertical compound, the one forward having cylinders 28 and 52 inches by 40 inches stroke, turning a io1/^ foot wheel; the engine aft having cylinders 32 and 58 inches by 48 inches, turning a 12-foot wheel. Steam is furnished at 120 pounds pressure by four double-ended cylindrical boilers ii}4 x 18 feet. For massive construction it is believed the vessel has no equal. The frames are 24 inches wide and 12 inches thick in some places. There are fifteen keelsons, none less than 14 inches square. Extra frames make almost a solid shell of frames at the turn of the bilge, where are two extra keelsons. The planking is six inches thick and the hull is nearly three feet thick on the bottom. The water line at the side is protected by half inch plates and the bow and stern are protected with two inch plates. The City of Mackinaw and Alpena represent a very different type from the Ste. Marie. They are the latest achievement of the company in the building of sidewheel steamers, surpassing in speed and elegance anything at present on the lakes. They were built during 1892-93 for the Detroit and Cleveland Steam Navigation Company, operating the City of Cleveland, City of Detroit and other steamers described in a previous chapter. The hulls are 266 feet keel, 280 feet over all and 385^ feet beam, being 70 feet over guards. The engines will develop about 3,000 horse power, although the engines and boilers are not naturally as powerful as those in other boats of the line that develop less power. This is explained by the application of Howden's system of hot draft to the four 12 by 20-foot double ended boilers that furnish steam at 120 pounds pressure. The low pressure cylinder of the compound engine is 66 inches, and the high pressure 42 inches, the stroke being 11 feet, the same as the stroke of the engines built for the latest Fall River liner. The engines for the Sound steamer, as well as those for the Mackinaw and Alpena were built by the W. and A. Fletcher Co., Hoboken, N. J. The company keeps abreast of the requirements for economical freight carriers as well as passenger steamers, as noted on a following page.